Several hair brushes and applicators have been created and disclosed in the prior art for use in applying liquids, such as gel, conditioners, hair coloring and other hair products to human hair. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,089 (“the '089 patent”) discloses a hair brush applicator for applying ‘flowable’ hair care products such as gel and conditioner to the hair of a user. The hair brush of the '089 patent comprises a handle with a chamber that is connected to the head of the hair brush, having a number of narrow and wide bristles extending from the brush. The wide bristles are tubular and have open roots and lateral apertures positioned between the root and tip of the bristle. A rotating disk is provided to fluidly connect the chamber in the handle to the wide bristles. The handle comprises a flexible bellows region which permits squeezing of the handle to compress the chamber to force the hair care product to flow through the bristles. Notwithstanding the intended utility, the use of tubular applicators is inefficient and difficult to clean. When hair product such as gel dries over time inside the tubular bristle, it is time consuming and challenging to clean and remove the gel in order to clear the path for future flow. This renders the hair brush progressively less effective after each use. Furthermore, dispensing hair care products through bristles is inefficient since the scalp hinders the even flow of hair care product to and through the hair.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,029 (“the '029 patent”) discloses a gel dispensing hair brush having a number of hollow bristles tapering from the head of the brush to a free end at the tip of the bristle for dispensing gel that is held within a reservoir in the head of the brush. The device includes a compression plate which compresses the bellows in the head of the brush when a thumb wheel is rotated. As the bellows compress, gel is forced through a dispensing plate through to the hollow bristles for application to hair. As with the '089 patent, this device (i) may be difficult to clean and degrade over time if gel dries in the hollow bristle and (ii) will not efficiently distribute the hair care product to the hair as the scalp will block the end of the bristles.
Another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,852 (“the '852 patent”) discloses a dispensing brush having a rigid holding chamber and a deformable bulb attached to the chamber for pressurizing the chamber. In order to dispense material from within the chamber, an operator may use his/her thumb to depress the bulb and increase the air pressure within the holding chamber so as to eject treatment material from the chamber through a plurality of dispensing orifices extending through the bristle retaining portion of the brush. Although effective at forcefully ejecting material from within the chamber, it is difficult to regulate the amount of material being ejected leaving a user desiring more or less than the amount actually ejected.